Latest Chapter in Mideast Tension Is Dennis Ross vs. George Mitchell

[Purveyor]

By Nathan Guttman, Published January 12, 2011, issue of January 21, 2011.

Washington — The Israeli-Palestinian peace process may be near collapse, but the Washington turf wars surrounding it are still going strong, according to sources involved in the negotiations.

The administration’s top Middle East hands — special envoy George Mitchell and White House adviser Dennis Ross — are increasingly at loggerheads, these sources say.

In the past month, both men were dispatched separately to the region to hold talks, and while all parties involved in the process agree that the two envoys coordinate their activities, they agree, too, that the tensions between them were painfully evident. “There is not much love there,” an Israeli official involved in the peace process said. A Palestinian negotiator added: “We can definitely feel it. Very much so.”

These officials, like others who spoke to the Forward for this article, insisted on not being named, due to their ongoing relations with Ross and Mitchell.

Stories of the tense relations have been circulating in Washington’s diplomatic rumor mill for months. Observers have noted that the two senior negotiators hardly ever sit together in meetings with their regional counterparts.

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http://www.forward.com/articles/134642/